Why the brain does not want to learn
The good news is that it's not laziness or a lack of programming ability that you can't understand and use recursion properly. Difficulties in learning new material in most people arise from the misuse of the brain. It's like with an axe: if you try hard, the log can be split with a butt. But it is much more effective to cut with a point.
UC San Diego professor Barbara Oakland says our brains work in two modes. This is a focused and relaxed (or diffused) mode. Both modes are important for successful study or work. Therefore, it is important to understand them and be able to use them correctly.
The focused mode turns on when we solve complex and non-trivial tasks. It also works when we try to understand something new, we are engaged in applied activities unknown to us. For example, if you have never used Chinese chopsticks and mastered this instrument, the brain works in a focused mode.
What's under the hood
To look under the hood, that is, in the skull, imagine the starry sky. The stars on it are nerve cells or neurons. To solve a specific problem, nerve cells must communicate with each other or form neural connections. They can be thought of as constellations.
To solve any task, for example, riding a bicycle, declaring a variable, or using a toothbrush, our personal star map has its own constellations or neural connections.
When a person does something habitual, such as picking up a spoon, typing on a keyboard, or shaving, the brain uses existing neural connections. Nerve cells communicate with each other along familiar routes. Therefore, we eat soup or pedal a bicycle without thinking. The brain works in a relaxed mode.
When a person does something new, like learning Python or trying to eat soup with Chinese chopsticks, the brain is forced to make new neural connections.
Nerve impulses seem to pave new paths on the "star map" of the brain. These paths connect into new constellations. But before the formation of synapses, the nerve impulse is forced to try a huge number of options, fall into black holes tens of thousands of times and collide with cooled stars.
When we learn new things, the brain works in focused mode. This is a less efficient and more energy-consuming mode of operation. To find a path and unite into constellations, a neuron sends nerve impulses in tens of thousands of false directions.
Do you already understand why it is difficult for us to study? The focused mode is energy-consuming, so the brain cannot maintain it for a long time.
Fatigue, drowsiness, and even procrastination are defense reactions or brain traps. He wants to go back to relaxed mode, so he reminds us of social media and tea.
Why do we use our brains in the wrong way?
Another good news: a relaxed mode of the brain is just as important and useful for learning and solving applied problems as a focused one. That is, in relaxation mode, the brain does not skip but works. The beauty is that it happens without any active effort on our part.
This is easiest to understand by the example of skills and abilities. Imagine a person who is learning to knit. First, he learns the theory and acquires knowledge. One knows how to knit, but doesn't know how to do it. Then the person picks up the knitting needles, wants to make bernat baby blanket yarn and knits several rows. But to make each loop, one must concentrate. When a person knits 100 thousand rows, he will be able to knit like your grandmother: looking at the TV screen or even half asleep.
A skill is a skill brought to automaticity. A beginner knows how to knit. To make a loop, his brain must focus and work in an energy-consuming mode. Grandma has knitting skills. She can knit a sweater without focusing on stitches and rows. Her brain is in relaxed mode. Therefore, the grandmother thinks about the sweater, and not about the movements of the knitting needles.
Thinking that you can only learn something new in a focused mode, you are not using your brain correctly. To study effectively, as well as for successful daily activities, both modes of operation are important.
In focused mode, you will learn new facts and gain skills. In a relaxed mode, you comprehend information, get a holistic picture, and consolidate skills. Moreover, the brain generates new ideas when it works in an unfocused mode.
How did Dali defocus?
The famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali used an interesting technique to look for ideas for paintings. He sat down in a comfortable chair, relaxed, and closed his eyes. In his hand, he held a bunch of keys. Dali fell into a half-sleep, his body relaxed.
At some point, the hand released the keys, and the loud sound from their fall woke the artist. He immediately began to create, so as not to forget the ideas received in the state between sleep and wakefulness. The inventor Thomas Edison used the same technique.
What do memory and weightlifter muscles have in common?
Good news number three: memory can be trained. This is like a muscle you are a weightlifter. But you need to train properly. Memory and muscles cannot be developed in a day or a week. Just do not remember about Synthol jocks and psychostimulants. These are the exceptions, so they prove the rules.
We forget most of the information - the brain simply cannot remember the “way” to it.
We forget most of the information - the brain simply cannot remember the “way” to it.
Human memory can be compared to computer memory. Like iron assistants, we have RAM. Its volume is limited: according to the latest data, it effectively holds up to four blocks of information.
We have long-term memory. Colossal volumes of information are stored on a conditional hard disk. Some information we remember effortlessly. A person knows the address of his house very well, although he does not keep this information in RAM. But it regularly accesses the part of the brain that stores the address. For example, this happens when he calls a taxi or orders a pizza.
Some information we remember with effort. What's the name of the girl you pulled her hair in first grade? What was the name of the kindergarten teacher? A person rarely accesses the regions of the brain with this information, so the brain must make an effort to find paths to the data.
Most of the information we forget. It is not permanently erased, but stored in the far corners of our "hard drive". But the brain does not know the paths to this data, since it never accesses it.
To effectively learn and remember new information, you need to teach the brain to find paths to the right parts of long-term memory.
It is enough to regularly load information into RAM. That is, in one way or another, use and repeat information.
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